The North Cascades
The North Cascades became a national park on October 2, 1968. It is located in the north central area of Washington. Since it’s inception the park’s mission statement has evolved to include concerns of the entire ecosystem. (www.seattleinsider.com) When you go to the North Cascades in Washington, you can visit and do a variety of things. Some major tourist attractions are the beautiful ice sculpted, jagged mountains, which rise above deep-forested valleys-terrain carved by moving ice. The Park Complex contains more glaciers than any other national park in the United States outside Alaska. These glaciers are an important source of water for salmon, other wildlife, plants, and people in the Puget Sound region. The cascading waters, which provide a large and expanding nearby population with a wide variety of recreational opportunities, from boating and camping to climbing and backpacking. The vast wildlife also is a major attraction because it is the core of one of the largest protected wild areas in the United States and is a substantial portion of it is designated wilderness. Humans here are visitors, who come to enjoy nature on nature's terms. The park provides a habitat for one of the greatest diversities of plant life in North America including rare and sensitive species. Some wildlife that live here are a variety of fish, deer, moose, geese, all kinds of birds, horses, bald eagles, wolves, grizzly bears, mountain lions, mountain goats and black bears. Ancient forest holds millions of living organisms and thousands of diverse life forms. The history of the park in general is also a tourist attraction for the park its was after all home to at least 4 tribes whose descendants now live nearby and includes, within its boundaries, three contemporary communities. (www.northcascades.net)
The park and its breathtaking features attract 400, 000 visitors per year. The highest visitation time is usually in August and the lowest is in January. When visitors are here they can do the following: go backcountry camping, hiking, mountain climbing, fishing, horseback riding, wildlife and bird watching, scenery viewing, boating. Facilities include hiking trails, horse rentals nearby, small boat rentals, and professional guide, climbing, pack train services.
It has been stated that there have been no known fires or floods that have occurred in this area. The wildlife and vegetation is basically the same as it is now. (www.nps.gov)
Some educational programs offered at the North Cascades National Park are: field seminars, retreats, graduate programs, teacher workshops, volunteer service learning, skagit watershed education project, and the Northwest Mountain School which is a school for mountaineering, rock climbing, backpacking and more.
In this research paper, I will address the changes that occurred within the ecosystem of Yellowstone National Park since the reintroduction of the grey wolves. The paper will consist of four sections; the first section will include the history behind the extirpation and subsequent reintroduction of the gray wolf in Northern America. The second section will explore the political controversy that surrounds the reintroduction of the gray wolf in Yellowstone. The third section will contain discuss the gray wolf and its impact on the ecosystem of Yellowstone. I will conclude my essay by explaining how the gray wolves act as climate change buffers in Yellowstone amidst global warming.
Committee on Senate Energy and National Resources Subcommittee on National Parks. 3 June 2003: ESBCO. Mission Viejo Library., Mission Viejo, CA. 31 July 2005. http://web31.epnet.com/citation.
The United States Department of agriculture Forest Service investigation report on the thirty mile fire.
The Little Missouri River eroding the mountain range is the reason that the park is as it looks today. The park is believed to be <60 million years old. Over 60 million years ago volcanos all over the west were erupting and spitting out amounts of ash. The rivers near the volcanos were gathering. The rivers began to dry out, leveeing the ash behind. The ash was being dried in layers and turned into sandstone, siltstone and mudstone while the ash layers became bentonite clay. This Bentonite clay is dangerous because it gets people stuck, like quick sand it is located throughout the park. It can pull the car tires un...
When Meriwether Lewis and William Clark first explored Montana in the early 1800s, they were awestruck by the open plains and delighted by the wide range of animals that roamed the land. After reaching the Great Falls, which is on the Missouri River in what is now Montana (Av2 books). Lewis wrote in his journal that it was “the grandest sight” that he had “ever beheld.” Today much of the landscape the Lewis and Clark crossed remains unchanged. The dense forest, rugged mountains, and rushing rivers are still abundant with fish and other wildlife.
Yellowstone National Park is located primarily in Wyoming but also extends into Montana and Idaho (Figure 1). Established in 1872, it is thought to be the first National Park in the world (Russell et al. 2004). The park spans an area of 3,468 squares miles and includes lakes, canyons, rivers and mountain ranges. Yellowstone Park has a large number of megafauna in its region, including the gray wolf. Even when Yellowstone was created, the gray wolf population was already in decline. By the early 1990’s, most of the population had been killed and scientists confirmed that sustainable Gray wolf populations had been extirpated (Creel and Rotella, 2010).
to rapid changes in their environment, which has caused it to become a National Park to prevent
Located just beyond the south entrance to the park is the visitors center and ranger station. Here you can find maps to trails, information about camping, fishing and boating, and information about the flora and fauna to be found within the park. This is a good place to start your visit, get oriented, and plan your day.
In 1629, a group of Franciscans stationed at the village of Oraibi named the giant mountains they saw San Francisco, in honor of St. Francis of Assisi . Opinions over the use of the peaks by Native tribes and this new influx of culture are as far apart as the names they call the mountain itself. At over a mile high, the San Francisco Mountains tower over the predominantly Anglo town of Flagstaff to the south. The mountain range was actually formed by a volcano that is now inactive. These peaks have long been considered sacred ground by thirteen Native American tribes, including the Hopi and the Navajo. As the importance of the use of the peaks has intensified among both recreationally and economically for the city of Flagstaff so too has the controversy generated more heat among Native tribes. Opening in 1937, the Arizona Snowbowl is one of the oldest running ski resorts in the country. Since that time the Snow Bowl has created adversity everywhere from environmentalists to Native Americans. The only way to understand the legitimacy of these Native American claims is to take a closer look at how the peaks relate to their religion and way of life. This will be done through the two most dominant voices of the battle, the Navajo and Hopi. This comprehension is necessary in order to fully understand the hardships and tribulations many spiritual Natives have endured in trying to protect their sacred land, even when the law is seemingly on their side.
gravel road open to the public that is in the park, but very few people
Every year, over nine million hikers and adventure seekers travel to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park making it the most visited national park in the United States. There are abundant reasons for this, but many popular reasons include over 150 hiking trails extending over 850 miles, a large portion of the Appalachian Trail, sightseeing, fishing, horseback riding, and bicycling. The park houses roughly ten thousand species of plants and animals with an estimated 90,000 undocumented species likely possible to be present. It is clear why there was a pressing interest in making all this land into a national park. My research was started by asking the question; how did the transformation of tourism due to the establishment of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park affect surrounding cities such as Gatlinburg and Sevier County, and in return, its effect on the popularity of the park?
The Grand Canyon holds many interesting secrets from the past people who have made the canyon their home. The Grand Canyon has kept these secrets for many years through the generations of people who have lived in those areas and the stories that these generations have told younger generations. I find it interesting how people have lived in those areas for so long, they have dealt with the changes of their home. I also find it interesting how the people who lived in these conditions and the items they used to cook and storage items are items that we are finding today. Their items have survived through years of season changes, they may be broken or scattered within an area but they have for the most part stayed intact. The Grand Canyon holds history and stories of the people who lived their lives there, to think that under the sand that has blown and covered these areas was a town or homes to people. The people who lived there had an understanding of the plants and animals of the area they lived; they learned by trial and error that in itself is interesting. They were not afraid of being wrong, they learned from their mistakes. They lived by hunting and living outdoors, as people in our society it seems weird to think of living the way the natives have lived their lives. As stated in the article the natives possessed an understanding of the seasons and the area that they lived in that is beyond our grasp (Coder 2000:6-7). They were interesting people from what they knew to how they lived. I find it interesting how times have dramatically changed, the natives that lived in the Grand Canyon lived with what they could make with their hands, and eat what they could hunt, and they had the necessities whereas we today go to a s...
We were surrounded by old trees and spotted lots of cacti. We would also see a few squirrels here and there. Our trail had a view of the other side of the mountain which was stunning. We
At this National Park you may find miles and miles of hiking trails through volcanic craters, hot deserts and rainforests. They have Drive Chain of Craters Roads, Ranger Programs, A Walk Into The Past, and After Dark in the Park.
National Parks are the cornerstone of every country because it preserves the rich cultural and natural resources of a nation, such as Yellowstone in the United States of America. Yellowstone National Park is the World’s First National Park which brings millions of attraction each year, it is larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combine and have over a thousand species of plants and animal (Yellowstone Media). However, a very important type of species has been missing in Yellowstone National Park for a very long time. Wolves, which got reintroduce back into Yellowstone National Park, should stay there because without them the ecosystem would be out of balance.